Perspectives on Safety > Perspective

with commentary by Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, The Transformation of Patient Safety at the VA, September 2006

Five years after the landmark Crossing the Quality Chasm report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the quality and safety of health care in the United States remains far from ideal.(1) It is easy to feel pessimistic. Can health care organizations really...

Journal Article > Study

This study evaluated the capacity of 30 academic surgeons to discuss error scenarios, such as wrong-side surgery and retained sponges, with standardized patients. Investigators analyzed the conversations and discovered that 57% of the surgeons used the word "error" or "mistake," but less than half offered a verbal apology. The authors conclude that significant gaps exist between how physicians disclose medical errors and what patients expect in such conversations, thereby generating a need for educational intervention. The same authors previously wrote a commentary calling for professional action in disclosure of medical errors.

Journal Article > Study

Although instances of wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient adverse events (WSPEs) have been widely publicized, the true incidence of such errors remains unclear. A prior study indicated a rate of approximately 1 case per 112,000 surgeries, but WSPEs may occur in the outpatient setting or in ambulatory surgery as well. In this study, the authors reviewed four databases to determine the incidence of all WSPEs, including procedures performed outside the operating room. Data from both mandatory and voluntary reporting systems indicates that approximately 1300 to 2700 WSPEs occur yearly, with many occurring during outpatient procedures. The authors argue that all WSPEs should be considered preventable, and recommend reporting and prevention standards for reducing such errors.

Book/Report

The National Quality Forum has defined 29 never events—patient safety problems that should never occur, such as wrong-site surgery and patient falls. Since 2003, Minnesota hospitals have been required to report such incidents. The 2018 report summarizes information about 384 adverse events that were reported and found pressure ulcers and invasive procedure events increased, while fall-related deaths decreased. Reports from previous years are also available.

Wrong site operations are rare and often occur when systems to prevent them fail. This study reviewed existing prevention strategies, such as the Joint Commission's Universal Protocol, to develop a framework for hospitals to assess their wrong site event prevention efforts. The proposed framework asks whether a behaviorally specific policy has been enacted and whether staff understand the policy, and goes on to recommend directly observing the policy being put into practice. The authors advocate standardized interventions utilizing effective methods to measure safety. A previous Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) WebM&M commentary discusses factors that place patients at risk for wrong site surgery.

Journal Article > Commentary

This commentary addresses the important phases of communication with families surrounding complications of surgery. Also discussed are key aspects of physician self-care following errors, a topic highlighted in a recent AHRQ WebM&M commentary.

Journal Article > Study

Wrong-patient and wrong-site surgeries are considered never events, as they are devastating errors that arise from serious underlying safety problems. This study used Veterans Administration data to analyze the broader concept of "incorrect" surgical procedures, including near misses and errors in procedures performed outside the operating room (for example, in interventional radiology). Root cause analysis was used to identify underlying safety problems. Errors occurred in virtually all specialties that perform procedures. The authors found that many cases could be attributed in part to poor communication that may not have been addressed by preoperative time-outs; for example, several cases in which surgical implants were unavailable would have required communication well before the day of surgery. The authors argue for teamwork training based on crew resource management principles to address these serious errors.